Esmahan was impulsive and cautious at the same time. In particular, she warned the press, convinced within her that the Egyptian press had a complete position on “Al-Shawam”. However, the brightest journalists and writers of that time stood by her in her life and in her absence. Muhammad al-Tabe’i played an important role in Asmahan’s personal life, in writing her biography, and shedding light on unknown chapters of her life. Although he also remained a mystery. He suggested that there was an intimate relationship that brought him together with the tyrannical star, but he was satisfied with hints and his clever gestures. At the same time, he had a kind of concern for Asmahan, and fear for her, as he closely witnessed her recklessness in dealing with people and her lack of interest in what was said or rumored. However, what he wrote during her life, and for a long period after her death, remains one of the important references in codifying her biography and the biography of Egypt in that beautiful era. Once, he even wrote an accurate description of her, and said: “Her nose was a little pointed, her mouth was wide, her chin was somewhat prominent, all of which were unpleasant features, but her eyes? Her eyes were everything. There was magic and secrets in them, and they were green with a blue tint.
It is true that al-Tabei was in his early days an art critic in Rose al-Youssef magazine, but his name raised the status of criticism and art alike. Soon, he became a royal affairs journalist, traveling wherever King Farouk was, and he was one of that constellation claiming that Asmahan was superficial and had no interest in matters of culture and reading. And she was superstitious. But he admits that she was very sensitive and tender, crying to see the sunset or to hear the songs. There is no doubt that he also contributed to making her famous by writing about her and her trips to Switzerland, Lebanon, or Jerusalem. He did not hide his jealousy for her, as he was suggesting that he objected to her exaggerations and always reminded her of the conservative society from which she came. Rather, even in the Egyptian society in which she shone, it was also still very conservative. At this point, rumors linked her name to the head of the royal court, Hasanin Pasha. It was said that this angered Queen Nazli, and it seems that she did not mind rumors at this level, as it is part of her artistic and social rank alike.
All this time, her older brother Fouad was trying to get her back from the milieu of which she had become a part, and a part of her. Sharifa Zuhour narrates in her book “The Secrets of Asmahan” (Dar Al-Mada) that she began to spend nights outside the house despite his threats and beatings. Fouad did not mention that he mistreated his sister, but said that he did so at the instigation of the tabi’i, Khalid Muhsin Pasha, and some other family friends. Instead of responding, she took the unprecedented action of moving into a private apartment.
It was no longer possible to observe Asmahan in her political activities, and she left no doubt about her national loyalties and devotion to the battles of the people of the mountain. And on the balcony of the Continental Hotel, where informants abound, she would meet whoever she wanted and speak loudly and enthusiastically about the rights of the people of the mountain and their high dignity that should not be touched. This means that the French, against whom Sultan Pasha al-Atrash established the Permanent Revolution, would be hostile.
